Diet Dr Pepper FTW.

I rarely accept grouping/flashpoint invites, but that's only because I get interrupted a lot and do not want to be dead weight, or I always seem to get invites right before I'm ready to log off or am just finishing up. I do try to respond encouragingly and politely when someone asks though, I appreciate the offers even if I can't accept. I generally don't invite people (unless there's a group of people in line and we are having to wait FOREVER for some boss to respawn, ect.) because there have been many times where people have been very rude on other MMOs and I don't like to be yelled at. It is fun to meet new people though. Even if it "messes up" I'm almost always amused by PUGing, unless the people are just horribly mean. I think given how much trashtalking people see on other game forums though it can be intimidating. I feel safe tanking or healing for my guild, since no one is going to scream about my performance and treat me like dirt if I mess up (though they may offer some suggestions, which is great!). I have never been screamed at in a PUG, but I have seen people be horrible on boards and naming names, and while I don't *think* my performance would ever be that bad, crazy people are crazy and I don't want to have to deal with someone going nuclear over a game. So...anyway, that is why I can be a bit cautious. I'm willing to give people the benefit of the doubt though, especially if they're nice/polite over /w.

My favorite out of all my alts so far: Tanno Vik to female Trooper: "Don't be dense, boss. You're not nearly trashy enough for me. Besides, your species are as ugly as hutts!"

Female player, female toons for the most part. I might roll a male IA because I love the sound of the voice actor's voice but I've already invested time in my female IA so maybe not. I tend to be guilded with old friends/older people, so there have been many times where the majority of my guild's (albeit a small majority) active players are female and most of the time it is very close to 50/50. I can't say that I've had random people sending me $$ before (except for the 1 credit gold spammers on SWTOR) but I don't run around in my underwear in game or silly things like that either, and I don't tend to have time to RP. (I cut my teeth on online text RPGs, so MMO RP seems very clunky to me) I believe that it happens though; I read a really amusing series on Something Awful about a male player utilizing his feminine wiles to get people to send his toon $$ and items. So even the people who think they're being nice to the ladies might be getting it wrong. LOL

I think this is just the cascade of ME3 princeface/rage spilling over to everything else the company touched. I'm not a big non-MMO computer game fan, but observing my hubby play nonstop practically until the end, get to the total ...??? ending (after enjoying the game immensely until that point), and then being filled in on the trainwreck post rage that's going on over there in the forums. I think people are just freaking out at Bioware right now. It does seem somewhat justified, that sure was a lame ending for a game that's centered around the storyline, and it just seems like a really dumb move on the part of whoever was calling the shots; but I don't think you can expect anyone who's sleep deprived and who's invested that much time into something to not be at least a little irrationally upset if there's a significant What-the-heck-was-that at the end.

There's also the social aspect of MMOs and other online games that non-gaming partners (somewhat justifiably so) may feel threatened by. It's not like there are not stories of people dumping their current spouses for people they met in a MMO or online. You do spend hours with people, playing and chatting, especially if you use vent. If, again, you are already neglecting your partner they're not likely to take kindly to listening to you laughing and chatting with other people s/he doesn't know. I don't know if times have changed, with more and more women getting into gaming (esp. MMOs), but I know back in my day the gamer girls got their pick of the litter. I wasn't going to date some *** just because he liked RPGs too (even though there were plenty of gamer guys who seemed to think that this should happen). In my observation, a lot of the relationship problems that gamers complain about tend to be less about the games and more about their lack (or inattentiveness) of relationship skills. There are tons of awesome guys and gals out there who game (as well as gamer friendly people)--and there are lots of jerks and morons too. IMO if you want a great partner you need to be a great partner first. If you want to have a long term partner, then you need to be flexible too. Statements about how you'll game whenever, wherever you want tend to change if you decide to have kids/go through other life changes one day. I still think that 90 percent of the time, blaming the game for relationship woes is a distraction and lying to yourself. I know that's been true in my life, and in my observation of others! Even gamer couples may sometimes fight about games (esp. if you're both sleep deprived in the baby stages or have just been coasting instead of doing the tune up your relationship needs) sometimes, and that is okay.

My main is a smuggler: I made a trooper just to run around and solo and just do kill therapy when my husband isn't playing. But I really found the class fun to play and the basic storyline enjoyable. My trooper is a girl scout pretty much, but I have seen trooper played with more nuance or all out all-mission-at-any-cost ruthless and starts to get very interesting as well. I do not think trooper has the best storyline in the game--but I don't think it's boring or pointless either. I really enjoyed one of the class missions where you get to take (and use) multiple companions as part of the story (I never got any of that with smuggler, I only have her at 45 though so maybe all classes get that?) I had a similar response to JC (got bored with the story and even the female JC voice started to get to me after awhile, I just wanted to slap her).

I have spent countless hours in moms groups/pta groups explaining the $$ and time-suck that can be gaming to non-gamer spouses by using scrapbooking/PTA analogies! I know so many other moms who can easily drop $200/pop in a scrapbook store and more hours than their gaming spouse--so it's their hobby that's most expensive. If you negotiate the terms (you do something fun with the kiddos while I go scrap with friends for 5 hours+ on this weekend, and you can then lock yourself in the home office for a raid party weekend or let's trade off some other way) everyone's happy! Hubby is pretty happy that my hobbies are SWTOR and websurfing, rather than scrapbooking and hmmm...whatever other expensive girly things are out there.

I've been married to a gamer now (the same one) for 11 years, together for more. He was the one who got me to try MMOs (I was an old fashioned pen and paper RPG girl growing up). If your partner does not feel that s/he is important to you, if you spend hours arranging instance runs while neglecting to arrange a date night (or relying only on them to do it)--there's going to be a problem. If you blow off intimacy to "finish one more thing" too many times, there's going to be a problem. If you allow your irritation at loot ninjas/frustrating content/some idiot who messed up your raid to boil over to being snappish and sulky with your partner for the rest of the day because you're still butthurt over it, then that's going to be a problem. Of course any of that is going to happen SOMETIMES (hey it happens with work/school/life too!) but if it's a habit--that's something to look at. Many gamers (men in particular, but that's probably because I know more gamer guys than gals) tend to sweep all of that under the rug and just think it's all about their partner 'not getting it'. I think most of the time when people complain about gaming in a relationship (from either side) it's because they're avoiding the real issue, it's more convenient to push it off on a computer game (or the fact that someone just 'doesn't understand gamers') instead of really making sure that they are treating each other well and have the maturity to negotiate and ask for what they need. I really honestly do not care that my hubby has been staying up until 2+ AM every day for almost the last week to get his ME3 on. But that is because he still pays attention to me each day (even if he is adorably edging towards the computer), he still is keeping up with household responsibilities, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that if I were to really need him he would dump it for that time period without pouting or sulking. Hubby has a wife who brings him snacks and keeps the kids from pestering him during his game time, listens to him talk about the game with interest, ect--not because I am so awesome but because HE is mature, thoughtful, and puts his family first and I have learned I can trust that. Plus, it's fun to tease him. I love my adorkable gamer geek.